The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current, November 13, 2015, Image 7

The Baker County press., November 13, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

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Newspaper Page TextFRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 7 Local / Sports Crossroads holds expansion meeting for public input La Grande Swim Club hosted their Spooktacular swim meet on November 7 & 8. There were a total of 166 athletes representing 7 teams from Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Of the swimmers for La Grande, two com- peting are from Baker City, Jared Miller(16) and Riana Scott(13). The following are their results: Jared Miller 15 & over 50 free 1st 15 & over 100 Free 1st 15 & over 200 Free 1st 15 & over 500 Free 1st 15 & over 100 Back 1st 15 & over 200 back 1st 15 & over high point 3rd Riana Scott 13-14 50 Free 2nd 13-14 100 Free 3rd 13-14 100 Breast 2nd 13-14 200 Breast 2nd 13-14 100 Back 2nd 13-14 200 Back 2nd 13-14 100 Fly 5th 13-14 400 IM 1st 13-14 high point 2nd The next meet for these swimmers is the Boise Y Thanksgiving Invitational, November 20-22. BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com An idea is being tossed around to expand the Crossroads Art Center. Crossroads has received grant funding from the Na- tional Endowment for the Arts Challenge, America Grant and the Ford Family Foundation to do a feasi- bility study on the neigh- boring Welch Building as a possibility for any future expansion. Crossroads is not plan- ning to leave the current location in the Carnegie Library, which was recent- ly restored—a process that in itself took six years to complete. “The Carnegie Library is limited in teach- ing space which is a core of our mission and Cross- roads has been looking at options,” said Crossroads Executive Director Ginger Savage. The Welch Building is one of those options. “Crossroads Board of Directors is committed to a careful and systematic process, which has always included a great deal of community input,” added Savage. A series of public out- reach meetings is being held to gain input from the community and assist in the feasibility study for the expansion and prospect of the Welch property. That property is directly across Auburn Street from where the Arts Center is currently located. The ﬁrst of the series was held Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. at Crossroads and fa- cilitated by architect Larry Abell, who is also Presi- dent of Historic Baker City and Crossroads Executive Director Ginger Savage. A handful of Baker City residents with interest in the center, including YMCA Executive Director Heidi Dalton, attended the meeting. Abell gave a brief pre- sentation highlighting the expansion to the Welch Building. Some construc- tion in the building has occurred already but turn- ing the 3,000 square-foot property would be a major undertaking. It is a prospect that Swimmers host Spooktacular Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press Historic Baker City’s Larry Abell at left, and Crossroads Executive Director Ginger Savage speak to a small group about possible Crossroads expansion. Savage and Abell ﬁnd exciting, and acquiring the property and expanding would double the space Crossroads already has and provide critical storage capacity that they say is desperately needed. Abell gave a brief slide presentation that included photos of the inside of the Welch building and out- lined Crossroads mission statement, “Our mission is to create opportunities for the entire community to be engaged, inspired, and transformed by the arts through participation in classes, workshops, exhibits, mentorships, and partnerships. A welcoming place where people meet and the arts speak.” He then asked for the group to share ideas as to what types of things would be beneﬁcial to the mission statement and expand the scope of the Arts Center. Ideas were tossed out that included things like making a media center that might include a place to do voice overs or create “commercials” or perhaps produce radio endeavors. This idea envisioned encompassing students in one or more roles giving skills that could inspire for a lifetime and even added a revenue generating aspect to the idea as well. The question was asked if there was the possibility of liv- ing space that could foster tenants providing for an artist in residence aspect. Dalton, because of her involvement with youth in our community through the YMCA had several ideas, and envisioned connecting with the community. She recently toured YMCA and Community Facilities in other areas like Chicago, and while by no means was she trying to compare this small community to a metropolis such as Chicago with their needs and re- sources, she was impressed with some of the ideas they were utilizing. Everyone at the meeting agreed that ﬂexibility was of the utmost importance in and space. Savage expressed also that of any space she needed to be mindful of how it was used. She indicated that cur- rently she has four-year- olds who attend the center for dance classes and has art displays geared toward adults that those chil- dren must pass to use the restroom. So the potential was there for a problem. Moving dance classes to expanded property would both eliminate that problem and potentially provide better, larger space for those classes. Other ideas expressed included expanding outdoor venues that might lend to more how-to type exhibits and the addition of a bistro that could cultivate culinary classes. Dalton added to that idea the possibility of adding a rooftop garden, which those involved with culinary programs could use. Partnering with online schooling in the arts was also mentioned as some- thing that may go in well with the media center. More public outreach meeting are scheduled for Tuesday, November 17 at 8:00 a.m. and Thursday November 19 at 6:00 p.m. both at the crossroads art center. Crossroads also invites community members to stay after the public input sessions and share any stories or remembrances of Welch Building—as known to some as the old Baker Clinic or the old KBKR Building. The feasibility study must be done by December 31, 2015, and at that time the Crossroads Board of Directors will take the time to review all options. For more information, please contact Crossroads at 541-523-5369. Wrestling tournament Public Works talks wastewater BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com Thursday at noon in Council Chambers at City Hall the Public Works Ad- visory Committee met for the ﬁrst time since May. Public Works Director Michelle Owen facili- tated the meeting with City Engineer Doug Schwin assisting her. Committee members Gary Carter, Myrna Morgan, Allen McDaniel and John Wickert were in attendance with Milo Pope and Jim Bruce absent. The meeting was called to order and the committee voted to accept the minutes from the May 7, 2015 meeting. Review of Projects Owen began by stating that in January and Febru- ary of each year she tries to gather together ideas that need to go into the next ﬁs- cal year’s capital plan. She likes to have that plan together by March, “which really isn’t that far off,” she said, so she knows what to approach the Budget Board for when they are working on the City Budget for the next ﬁscal year. Owen gave an overview of projects the Public Works Department is working on or has com- pleted for this year. She spoke of the Auburn Street waterline that had been replaced this past summer. She said, “That has been in and out of the Capital plan for at least a decade. But we ﬁnally got that taken care of.” She cited reasons for the delay of the project being issues such as street main- tenance issues like chip seal or overlay projects and just not wanting to destroy work that had just been done to the street. She noted,“It was a challenge for trafﬁc in the area but overall went very well.” Owen mentioned chip seal projects that were very successful. “We’ve gotten it down to a science, I think we are good at do- ing our short blocks.” Fog Seal projects were not without some issue, the City used a product they had not used before and unfortunately the salesper- son misrepresented drying time for the product there- fore not all projects were able to be completed. Owen said, “It wasn’t a complete success, or a complete disaster.It looks great and has worked well. The Fog Seal was ap- plied to Resort Street, L Street and E Street but E Street was right in front of the High School and we were right in the middle of the ﬁres and had all of the ﬁreﬁghters at the high school so there were some challenges with that.” Schwin added, “I don’t think it was a failure at all it is just that the curing time was not what they had represented.” City Council member Jim Thomas asked, “Was it because it was just a bad mix?” Owen and Schwin ad- vised that the product is a good product and they have been happy with it they both just felt that the salesman just didn’t under- stand the drying process and time it would require. The driver that was apply- ing the product seemed surprised the salesman had represented it as curing so quickly and seemed a lot more knowledgeable about the product. Owen advised the com- mittee of a water leak and sink hole that had occurred on Valley that required un- expected attention. It was a signiﬁcant leak about 2000 gallons per minute. “It ran for 40 minutes,” Owen said. SEE PUBLIC WORKS PAGE 12 Submitted Photos Courtesy of Dan Batchelor. Baker Mat Club had 13 ﬁrst-place wins, 9 second- place wins, and 11 third-place wins at last Satur- day’s tournament held in Baker City. The match was attended by wrestlers from Walla Walla, La Grande, Hermiston, Union, Enterprise, Irrigon, Pendleton, and Baker. The next match will be hosted by Pend- leton on November 14, 2015. Approximately 50 wrestlers are members of the Baker Mat Club team.